Father's Day a little early

The weekend before Father's day I went up to NYC to my brother's place to celebrate Father's Day. It was a great time hanging out with my dad and brother. We went to a BBQ Block party for lunch in Madison Square Park and then off to the Yankees game! Both my dad and brother are huge Yankees fans. The new stadium is amazing!! Here are some pics:

 

Walking from the Subway

 

Walking into the door
 

Dad and Kyle checking out the retro beer cans

 

It was a rainy day so the field is covered. You can see the field from inside the entire first floor.   So you can get your food and not miss the game! This is standing behind home plate.

  

The view from our seats

 

  

Failed attempt of a self portrait of the 3 of us

 

Dad and Ky enjoying the game

 

Dad and I trying to stay dry under the umbrella

 

Sibling love....and he's actually smiling!!

The next day we went to the Highline Walk that just opened in the city. It used to be the above ground train that ran through the city.

 

The old tracks

 

Walking along

 

The Hudson

 

  

Pretty flowers

 

And a bumble bee

It was a great weekend and a great way to celebrate Father's Day.

Christmas...

Sorry I've been quiet lately...things have been rather busy with the holidays.

I had a wonderful Christmas. My dad came down from upstate New York on Christmas Eve. He was able to visit some old friends, then we had dinner and headed to church. It was a nice day to just hang out. On Christmas day Kyle (my brother) and his girlfriend came over to my place for the day. We had a nice brunch and hung out. We opened gifts, watched The Polar Express, had some dinner. I made ham (the smallest one I could find was 7lbs!) some really good potatoes, green beans and salad. I'm intrigued by a gift from Kyle. It's a membership to Wine of the Month club! He remembered me saying a while ago that I don't know anything about wine but it is something I would like to learn more about. So I will be learning about wine this year! :)

On Friday my dad headed out to see some more friends and I went off to my mom's. She said that we were going to have lunch together and open gifts. When I got there everyone had a really late breakfast, so no one was hungry. I on the other hand hadn't eaten anything so I was starving. My mom asked where my ham was because that was what she was going to serve for lunch. Well, since she never told me that, I didn't bring it! Strange.
Anyway, I had a sandwich and then we opened gifts. We stack each person's gifts in front of them and go around and open them. My mom stacked mine in front of me and pointed to one box and said "Do not open this yet!" When it was my turn to open a gift she handed me a long and heavy box. I opened it and it was the Wii Fit. I was a little confused because I didn't have a Wii, and I knew that Kyle got my mom Wii Fit for Christmas. My mom was upset because she had given me the wrong box first, so she pointed to another box. I started to open it, but it was Uggs...not a Wii. Finally we got to the correct box and I got a Wii!!! It was something I was very surprised to get! I had never asked for one, but I'm so excited to have it!!
I got my mom and her husband Salsa Dancing lessons. My mom is so hard to shop for but she had been talking about wanting to go Salsa Dancing. She was so excited, though her husband wasn't so much. He told me that he would get me back from this. haha!
Friday evening I was able to introduce the Wii to my dad (he had never seen one before). We had fun playing, though he kept accusing me of cheating since I kept beating him. It not my fault he was horrible at it! :)
Anyway...it was a great Christmas. Fun times with family. I hope you had a Merry Christmas too!

Friends and Football kind of Weekend...

This past weekend I took a mini road trip to see friends and the end result was supposed to be the Ravens/Giants Football Game...but that didn't happen.

My dad, Kyle (my brother) and I are all huge football fans. My dad and Kyle are Giants fans, and I'm a Ravens fan. Back in June I started talking to Kyle about our dad's birthday in August and suggested getting tickets to the Ravens/Giants game in November. That was the plan...and I told him that he was in charge of getting the tickets since I was going to be out of the country. Well...the short answer to a long story is that we never got tickets...GRRRR. But we still decided to get together in NYC to watch the game...which I turned into a mini road trip.

Saturday morning I left and headed about an hour north to visit my friends Lori and Dan from college, and meet their adorable 7 month old son. It was great to catch up with them, see their beautiful house and play with the baby. He is teething so his bottom lip is MIA from him sucking on it so much! :) Here is a picture from our time together...

After spending the afternoon with Lori and Dan I headed to the Jersey Shore to spend the night at Gina's house. Her husband was away for the weekend, so we were able to have a girls night! My 2 and a half hour drive turned into 4 hours due to the pouring down rain. I hydroplaned many times too! Not a fun drive! Gina had made dinner and we spent the evening talking and catching up. I was really glad to see her since I missed her baby shower a few weeks ago because of our high school retreat.

At one point Gina opened the front door for some reason and there was a little slug on the screen door. Gina started freaking out and even called her husband about it! Before we went to bed I decided to open the door and see where the slug was...and it was gone! Gina freaked out even more, afraid that it had come into the house, but I found it...it went back outside. Here is the little slimy thing...

Gina made breakfast in the morning, we took some pictures...

I'm still half asleep here

Gina is so cute with her baby bump! I can't wait to meet little Gracie!

Off to NYC I went! The drive was much better in the daylight and no rain! I do have to admit that I was very impressed with myself driving through the city. I'm always surprised by how easy I'm able to get around there. Here's the skyline on my drive in...

I met my dad and Kyle in front of Kyle's apartment...and we found 2 parking places in front of his place!! That is unheard of!!! We walked several blocks to a sports bar to watch the game. Oddly the bar was packed with Broncos fans! Who would've thought?!?!

Sadly, the Ravens lost...though I still think they played well. There was one guy in the bar who was an obnoxious Giants fan (and no, I'm not talking about my dad!) When the Ravens scored their touchdown I started cheering and he started mocking me. Then he started mocking my dad...who was cheering for the same team as he was! Anyway, once the game was over my dad tried to get me out of there quickly because all the Steelers fans were coming in and he wasn't sure if I had enough self control! hahaha!

We headed to a museum that had a Grant and Lee exhibit about the Civil War. It was interesting and neat to see. My dad is a huge history buff so he loved it. We headed back to Kyle's apartment, and my dad and I took off. Kyle's roommate left and took all the furniture a few weeks ago and Kyle has been stressed trying to find a new place, so we decided to let him work on that. Here's the 3 of us...and of course Kyle isn't smiling...

Other than the scary drive Saturday evening and the Ravens losing it was a great weekend! Especially since I got home in time to see the Redskins lose!!! :)

I will never forget...

I will never forget where I was on this morning 7 years ago. I had started student teaching that semester, but this particular day we went to our schools late because we had class in the morning. We started the class, with "BJB" Big Joe Barnes as we called him, at 8am. Just around 9:00 we were given a short break from the class, so we all started to scurry to grab some coffee from the student commons area. Everyone in front of me was frozen just outside the door with the look of horror on their face. I was really craving my cup of coffee and wondered what was going on, until I saw the tv screen. Both of the towers had been hit, and no one knew what had happened at this point.

I immediately ran for my cell phone and tried to call my brother, who was a sophomore at NYU at the time. Of course I couldn't get through to him, so I called my parents. Both of my parents were still home, and we all agreed that Kyle was far enough away from there that he was ok, and honestly he was probably still sleeping, clueless about what was going on. We joked that he wouldn't be dumb enough to hear what had happened and start heading in that direction.

BJB canceled the rest of class, this tragedy hit him hard because he had several friends who worked at the World Trade Center. He also told us that we could call our schools and tell them that we were not coming in, if we wanted. I knew that I wouldn't be able to think straight until I knew for sure that Kyle was ok, so I called my school and went back to my apartment. One of my roommates was also in the class with me, so we walked back to the apartment where we were glued to the tv screen. Several people called me to see if I had heard from Kyle, and with each call I became more and more worried. I kept telling them that his dorm and classes were far enough away that he is fine. Someone actually thought it was wise to remind me that he was looking for an internship for the summer, and what if he was there for an interview. I immediately got off the phone with her...seriously, who does that?!

Classes all over the campus were canceled, or people would go to class where the professor would lead everyone in prayer for the nation and then they would be dismissed. I remember sitting in my apartment all day surrounded with all my friends constantly praying for my brother and other people who were affected by this horrible tragedy.

I finally got a call from my parents around 6:00 that evening telling me that they had talked to Kyle and he was safe. PRAISE GOD!!! Friends had woken him up to tell him what was going on...and we were wrong. He immediately started running towards the Twin Towers, but quickly turned around when he saw everyone running the opposite direction. I guess we were wrong...